[MUD-Dev] Birthday Cake (or Why Large Scale Sometimes Sucks) (long)

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Wed, 7 Jun 2000, Hess, Ian W (Ian) wrote:

> On Wed, 7 Jun 2000, Matt Mihaly wrote:
> 
> > (snipped section about "only TV" commentary)
> > What is with this horribly patronizing attitude so many seem to have
> > towards the users? People, users ARE NOT IDIOTS. You are NOT
> > smarter than they are. You are certainly MUCH less qualified to decide
> > what is best for them than they themselves are."
> 
> In addition, people may not be idiots, but I would like to think that 
> after creating a work of art, a game, or a storytelling experience, that
> the creator has learned something that a bulk of the populace may not
> know.  In that light, there are ways that the "creator" may be able to
> enhance the experience of interacting with his creation that the average
> "user" will not consider immediately.

Yes, indeed, but what I was referring to really was Randy Farmer's ideas
that we somehow need to tell users that it's BAD for them to stay online
for umpteen hours at a time. That's the user's decision, not mine. It's
just ridiculous, to me, to think that you know what is good for your users
"real" lives.

 
> > I will never intentionally design a product that requires users to play
> for large
> > numbers of hours daily, with no end in sight, in order to succeed. I
> firmly reject
> > the notion that MUDs/MMORGs must be that way. No worries, lots of other
> > people will. I'm so glad that not everyone is you, and not everyone is me,
> > because if that were the case, the world would be awfully boring wouldn't
> it?
> > (snip) 

A note: This isn't attributed properly. The first two sentences are Randy
Farmer's. The last sentence is my reply.

 
> I don't think that games are required to be this way unless the designer is
> hoping
> to appeal to a large (I'm guessing 300+) playerbase.  After a certain point,
> IMHO
> the game would have to either support an advancement curve requiring 50+
> hours 
> a week, or have a mechanism that matched player personality and play style
> to one
> of several advancement curves.  This way, the 3hr a week casual player and
> the
> 100 hr a week "rabid" player would not be in direct competition.

I can't comment on what Randy's example was, but he mentioned a designer
who has "proven" that one can create games with great re-play value that
are multiplayer and which don't require lots of time online to enjoy. I
fully agree that such things can be required. Remember, advancement curves
only appeal to one group of players. I, personally, get little joy out of
gaining the next level in a game. What I want is to be a political leader,
not go out and bash another orc to get another level. Other people want
different things.

--matt




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